Prokhorov mulls over quitting biathlon union

Former presidential candidate, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, also president of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU), has called team Russia’s performance at the World Champs in Ruhpolding “a disaster,” adding he is thinking of resigning from the post.

While Prokhorov was busy fighting for the votes in the Russian presidential ballot, his biathlon charges were losing race after race in Germany. All-in-all, the team managed to win only two bronze medals, finishing a lowly seventh place in the overall medal standings.

“I’m very disappointed. We failed, quite unexpectedly I might say, two relays – men’s and women’s. This is a terrible failure,” Prokhorov wrote in his blog.

“For three months of the presidential campaign I paid little attention to what was happening with the team. This is my fault as president of the Russian Biathlon Union. I don’t want to blame anyone else. But as far as I know, nothing spelled any troubles before the World Champs,” he admitted.

“Now we need to thoroughly think over the causes of such poor results. If I understand that I can’t do both politics and biathlon, I don’t exclude the possibility of my resignation from the RBU post,” Prokhorov concluded.

Prokhorov took the helm of the RBU in 2010 soon after the Vancouver Olympics. Under his stewardship of the federation, World Championship gold has so far eluded Russian biathletes.